Dark Side
by SquareEnix358
Summary: After Yuki's death, Akane feels as though she can not wash the blood from her hands, or her nightmares. When Kogami begins noticing the true tole this has taken, he begins to worry. However, when Akane's Psycho-pass starts to cloud, he begins to understand what fear really is. Will he be able to stop her grief from driving her off the end, just like it once did to him?
1. Chapter 1: A Light Dims

Over and over and over again. Akane watched as the blood ran through the crevices of his porcelain hands and down Yuki's once smooth neck. The carved smile across her neck flowed blood, even after she had hit the metal grates by his feet. Akane and Yuki both fell to their knees, while Makishima turned and walked away. _Right out of my hands._ Again and again she watched her own tears fall faster than the scarlet that dropped in front of her and landed on the shotgun. The gun that could've saved Yuki, if she wasn't so damn weak.

In the weeks following the death of her friend, Akane had been involuntarily sent on leave. As much as she wanted to deny the darkness plaguing her day in and day out, those around her could not ignore it. While she obviously appeared tired and growing thin, that wasn't the most concerning thing: it was her eyes. The light in them was gone. Half the time, she wasn't even there. Ginzo would watch her sit at her desk, gazing intently at the floor for hours on end. A few times, Kogami had tapped her shoulder as he walked by to snap her out of the hell her mind had placed her in. Finally, Ginzo filed for her to be officially discharged for two weeks minimum. While the idea was nice in theory, Akane would only go home and enter the same state of mind yet again. The first time she tried sleeping, her mind awoke to horrible nightmares that left her screaming and shaking. After trying a few more times, Akane decided it wasn't fair to her neighbors, and asked Ginzo if there was any way she could stay at the bureau headquarters.

For three weeks she slipped from her room in the enforcer housing unit to the officer, causally trying to see what Ginzo and the team were working on. And every time, she was sent back to her room alone. The only solace she found was in visits from the enforcers, who seemed to be just as bored as she was outside of work. One of the most frequent visitors was Masaoka, who liked to come by and play cards. They would relax in her living room and talk about almost everything, besides the only subject they both knew to avoid. Akane liked to believe that she was helping him just as much as he was her.

The only one who knew how much she was struggling was Kogami, who would visit quite often as well. But his visits were prompted by screams coming from next door in the early hours of the morning. The closest semblance of frantic Akane had ever seen him was his wide eyed and disheveled form standing in her now broken doorway. The next day, he found time to install a new door. Almost every night now, if he didn't already hear screaming by three or four, he would knock on the wall between them and come over. Those nights he knew she had never gone to sleep in the first place.

With the light of the TV and a breeze from the open window, Akane would sit with him on the couch and lean her head on his shoulder. The scent of his Spinel smoke drifting past her and the weight of his arm around her was enough to allow her to enter into sleep for another few hours.

On her first day back into the office, she was glad the first to greet her was none other than Kagari. "Heeey looks who's back! Enjoy your beauty rest?" Despite what she was undergoing, she was glad for his ability to lighten any mood. Still, he used humor to mask the genuine concern on his face as he looked at her.

Akane forced a lighthearted smile, "Yeah, can't you tell it's doing wonders?" While she meant for her laugh to reassure him, it sounded empty and hollow. She watched Kagari's smile faded as he nodded and continued on past her. Her mind flashed an image of Yuki's smile.

The day was relatively low key, with Akane merely being given paperwork. Despite having to step out of the room a few times, from flashbacks brought about merely by the mention of Makishima, she did fairly well. Now, back in her room, she was grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge as a knock came on her door. The rhythmic squeaking of her sneakers was somewhat calming as she hesitantly opened the door. Akane exhaled in relief when her eyes fell upon Kogami, who leaned against the doorframe lazily.

"I figured it more convenient for me to just come over now rather than wait until four thirty in the morning." And just like that, he was inside her room.

Akane placed her water on the counter, "Okay, but I was just about to go work out," she informed him, "so do you want to just wait in here or…?" She trailed off questioningly.

Kogami walked closer, examining her face with a leveled expression. "Mind if I join you?" He asked. While his injuries from before were finally healing, he was in no condition to fight. Still, it wasn't like Akane could hit hard enough to hurt him.

"You sure?" Akane walked up and lightly prodded two fingers at the wound on his side. While she gave him credit for not fully showing just how much discomfort he was in, Kogami still winced slightly.

"I'll be fine." He responded, lightly swatting her hand away before following her into the other room.

Despite the room between them, it was hard for Akane not to feel his breath on her neck and her heart hammering inside her chest. She liked to believe the heat she now felt was simply poor ventilation. When they entered the empty room, Kogami looked slightly lost as to what was going on, until he saw Akane strapping on fighting gloves. With this revelation, he suddenly noticed the padded floors and towels off to the side.

"I put in a request for there to be a room cleared and made into a sparring area as part of my therapy. The sparring robot and extra gloves were brought from home." Tightening the velcro on her gloves, she held a pair out to Kogami.

He shook his head, "No thanks, I prefer to fight without them."

Akane shifted on one hip, still holding them towards Kogami, "It's for my protection more than anything."

The two circled each other, using their observational skills to see what they could pick up on about their opponent: weaknesses, openings, tendencies. But between her mental scars and his physical ones, they were evenly matched. It was Akane who struck first. What she lacked in strength she made up for in size. Her fist connected with his good side, before her foot attempted to sweep his leg. Luckily, Kogami caught this, shifting aside and grabbing her arm to swing her back in an attempt to throw her down. Akane was too fast for this though.

The fighting went on like this for long enough that both of them lost track of time. In fact, they lost track of everything else but their movements and their opponents. It was the first time in a long while they had both had clear minds. Some while into the fight, their faces had erupted into grins, and by the end of it they both were laughing in enjoyment. Finally, Kogami pinned Akane to the floor, her shoulders flat against the padding and his body flush on hers. Even though they were both laughing, a calm started to settle over both of them that soon left nothing in the air as they looked into each other's' eyes.

Kogami was the first to move, shift off Akane and standing up, offering a hand to her, "Not bad, considering how tiny you are."

She laughed slightly, pulling herself up and walking over to grab a towel. "Hey, well it's because I'm tiny it makes me faster."

Walking into the other room to grab waters, Akane watched Kogami leave the room as she sat down on the floor. Now that her adrenaline was draining, she felt her body fall back on the floor. Her eyes stared at the florescent lighting beaming down from overhead, like the floor of heaven was opening up above her to take her away.

Kogami reentered the room, his smirk falling when he saw her empty eyes again. He walked over and sat down next to her, leaning over to get her to look at him; to bring her back from wherever she had gone. Now that he had seen it just moments ago, he missed the light they had. That was one of the things he wanted to make Makishima pay for the most.

"Hey," he began, lifting up his black shirt to wipe the sweat off his face before it dripped on her.

"I let Yuki die without doing anything…" Akane recited blankly as she sat up, pulling her knees to her chest. It had become her mantra after the encounter that night. Now, when her mind was blank and empty, this was carved across the inside of her eyelids, and burned on her retinas when they were open. It followed her in her sleep and haunted her when she was awake.

"You couldn't have. Makishima knew that, or he wouldn't have put his life on the line testing it." Kogami placed his hand on her back lightly, but all Akane felt was Makishima's blade as he lashed it across Yuki's back. She flinched away. If he felt any pain, he didn't show it.

After they sat like that, with Akane quietly muttering to herself, Kogami finally decided she had had enough for one day. He scooped her up in his arms and walked over to the couch, placing her down gently and pulling the blanket over her.

Her eyes finally broke their blank gaze, traveling to look up at Kogami, "Thank you." Akane whispered, feeling herself fade quickly. The last thing she remembers is Kogami's blurred silhouette going through the door.


	2. Chapter 2: Shadows Fall

**Hi everyone! Sorry I'm not updating much, I'm rolling towards the end of my senior year of high school and there's a ridiculous amount of stuff going on. So I apologize if chapters are short. Thank you for all the wonderful reviews that keep inspiring me to write. Then there's always the one rude review, that inspires you even more so to continue writing and prove to them yo really don't care what they say. Anyway, enjoy!**

Three weeks. The first night in three weeks where she hadn't woken up screaming. Still she didn't wake up with things making any more sense either. It took her a second to understand how her eyes had closed laying on the floor by the wall, and opened in her bed. The feeling that Kogami had a hand in this ghosted her all the way to the shower and through the rest of her morning routine. Even as she received the alert to arrive at a crime scene downtown, the thought still lingered in her mind.

"Man's name is Akio Miyamoto. Forty-five years old. When he was flagged by a street scanner earlier today he had a complete mental breakdown and refused to be taken in to receive help. Miyamoto then proceeded to take a woman off the street as hostage before taking shelter in his apartment nearby." Ginoza informed the group, gesturing up to the third story window where the curtains were drawn closed. In the slightest, almost unnoticeable way, the curtains twitched and a near microscopic gap opened up; she knew he was watching.

Kogami was the only other person who seemed to notice this, nodding his head to Akane as Ginoza continued, "Now, we're going to set up a perimeter. Kagari and Masaoka will secure the side exit. Tsunemori, take Kogami and guard the back exit. Make sure no one enters or exits that building. Kunizuka, you and I will take the main entrance and try to enter into the building. Are we all clear?" No one questioned it, and the group disbanded fluidly into their assigned stations.

Akane stood by the truck, staring at the dominator she had once seen as the ultimate decider between good and bad. The one thing she thought would never fail her. As her hand slid over the cool metal of the handle, she flashed back to her white knuckles gripping the barrel of the shotgun, unable to raise it just a few degrees more and pull the trigger. Such a minor difference was a major sacrifice.

It was all Kogami could do it merely sit by and watch as fear filled Akane's eyes, then followed by insatiable grief. After a minute or so, he walked over and lightly tapped her arm, "Hey, let's go." he said, his voice lacking its usual coldness.

The pictures shattering before her eyes, she gripped the dominator firmly and pulled it out. The scanner connected with her, identifying her status as an inspector. A deep breath tried to calm her, but fear still welled inside her as the dominator evaluated her. Akane's stomach clenched and she just begged her body to be able to, for once, hide her emotions well.

Once they took their mark, a loud voice could be heard from the front, and she knew Ginoza was going to begin his attack, "Give up Miyamoto. We have the building surrounded. Taking her life will only make things worse for you."

Just then, the back door flew open and Miyamoto sprinted down the alley. Despite her unfocused mind, Akane was the first to react, taking off down the alley in which he disappeared. The man ran down the narrow street and cut into an old building around the corner, with Akane only steps behind him.

When she entered the building, he was not in sight. The darkness made it a little hard to see every detail around her, which gave her an uneasy feeling in her gut. She heard Kogami's footsteps grow closer, focusing on that to calm her heart rate. A sudden blow to her side knocked her to the floor, and a heavy weight settled on top of her. Miyamoto The man had tackled her and now wrestled with her on the floor while he attempted to take his knife to her throat.

However, Kogami was right behind her, his dominator trained on the two of them. The device locked on both of their signatures, and Kogami had to ignore his shock long enough to take aim so Akane would be the one mistakenly blown to bits. Just as she wedged a foot up on to his chest, Akane launched the man off, sending him into the direct path of Kogami's dominator.

They both sat there, drenched in the blood from Miyamoto while the sound of their breathing resonated in the room. Akane looked down at her hands, and felt the beginning of the pull on her mind as flashbacks to the blood dripping down from the metal grates under Yuki's body.

"Why didn't you tell me your Psycho-pass was rising?" Kogami let his arms drop to his sides as she stood there, his eyes burning holes into Akane's skull.

Her breathing seemed to stop entirely, "Because it's not that bad," Her eyes still refused to look up, "I'm not even in the category of a latent criminal yet. Its just a little normal fluctuation, that's all."

His fingers ran through his hair with a frustrated grunt. "Fifty points isn't a fluctuation. You damn-well know that is a skyrocket." Kogami's voice died off at the end.

For a surprising second, Akane found the strength to stand at look directly into his eyes. "I have it under control. You don't need to protect me from myself. Once I find Makishima, everything will be alright." And with that, the walked past him, her shoulder brushing his just slightly. And Kogami didn't want to imagine how she would go about achieving "alright", and what she would sacrifice to do so.


End file.
